She Has Your Eyes
by lostladyknight
Summary: Nick's forced to bring his daughter to work... Response to a challenge from the CSI Fanfiction Critique group at Talk CSI. Inspired by a picture of Nick and a child from season 7.


**A/N This story was written by Bauerfreak and I in response to a challenge from the Fanfiction Critique Group at Talk CSI. If you have any interst in learning more about the FCG please PM me with any questions. **

**Umm... This story was also the result of Hanna and I looking for information on the episode where Nicky holds a baby. **

**We love reviews so please leave one!**

_He Has Your Eyes_

_By: Bauerfreak and LostLadyKnight_

"Chelsea Lynn, honey, what am I going to do with you?" Nick asked the six month old he had tucked in his arms as he tried to soothe her and accomplish something at work at the same time.

The child cooed and reached up to his face, squeezing his nose tightly between her tiny fingers as if to tell him she didn't have any idea what he could do with her. The contentment slowly passed out of her face though, in the way babies faces always slowly morphed. Her lower lip jutting out in slow motion as her face began to wrinkle and her eyes grew wetter. The way he had shifted her as he sought a better grip had reminded her just how hungry she was getting.

It was probably against departmental policy to hold a baby in one arm and handle forensic evidence with the other, but today, Nick didn't have much choice. His ex-girlfriend, Michelle, had dropped his six month old daughter off for a usual "Daddy Day" as she called it, but Nick had gotten called into work. There was no way Michelle could come back to pick her up, and he had no family in town to care for baby Chelsea, so he'd been forced to bring her to work. Things had been going well so far, but he wasn't surprised that his little girl was getting upset.

"Awwww don't cry baby," he cooed as he set the bag he'd been analyzing down on the forensics table. Chelsea took a deep breath, giving the father about one second of silence, before she let it all out in a gut-wrenching cry once again. Nick just hoped Ecklie had something better to do than get on his ass about bringing his kid into work.

Naturally in an attempt to gently rock his daughter back into a state of calm he swept her feet across the bag he'd just placed on the table sending it careening to the floor. As it fell, however, a side flap was torn up when it grazed the corner of the table exposing a hidden inner pocket, spilling out was a piece of paper.

He pressed a kiss to his daughter's forehead and ran a set of fingers gently down the back of her skull in a motion that seemed to do the trick for another moment of relief. He took the opportunity to lean down and collect the spilled contents. He looked at the paper and saw it was a two and a half page essay written quite obviously by a teenager. It was an analysis of the 1980's music video put out by Queen and their lead singer, Freddy Mercury. He didn't get much more time to read over the essay because as soon as she realized that her father wasn't paying attention to her the child in his arms let out another wail.

"It's okay baby girl, daddy's gonna get you some supper right now," he replaced the bag and essay on the forensic layout table and started for the door. "Shhh babe... it's okay... daddy's gettin it."

The little girl was always comforted by the sound of her father's calm, soothing voice, so as he kept talking to her, she began to calm down a bit, though she was still obviously upset. He took her into the break room, where her car seat was situated on the table. It was the only piece of furniture familiar to the little girl. There wasn't really a good place to put Chelsea down for a good nap, or toys that she could play with, which was what made this shift particularly difficult.

"Good girl." Nick cooed, bouncing her up and down slightly as he walked to the community refrigerator. Michelle insisted on always feeding Chelsea breastmilk whenever possible. She always had at least four bottles made up when she dropped Chelsea off for "Daddy Day". Those four bottles were now sitting in the CSI fridge, looking out of place. Nick smirked as he pulled one out to feed her, then stuck it in the microwave to heat it up.

Just then, Sara walked in to take her own break, and smirked at the sight before her. It was always obvious to her that Nick would be an amazing father, and watching him over the past six months with his new baby daughter only affirmed it. She watched them interact from the doorway, Nick not knowing she was watching, as they waited for the bottle to heat up.

As he turned to pull the bottle out of the microwave when it beeped he noticed Sara's presence in the door way and automatically waved her in. Without really saying much he plopped the child into her arms so that he could use two hands to check the temperature of his daughter's meal. Chelsea had always been comfortable with Sara, so he knew it wasn't much of a risk to let her try to soothe her while he finished up. Sara wrapped her arms around the child gently and pulled her close to her chest, rocking her gently she began to sing an almost inaudible little tune. If anyone else had been in the room, Sara simply wouldn't have done it... but when it was just Nick with her and Chelsea, it was almost as though she was a different woman.

When Nick reached out to take his child back, she passed her over just as gently as any other motion she'd ever made in her life. She watched as Nick stepped backwards a few times and took a seat on the couch as he began feeding the child. Sara just pulled a chair out near her and sat where she was, perfectly content to watch her boyfriend and his child for a while.

"She has your eyes, you know?" she said, finally breaking the silence. "I know people tell you all the time, but it always gets me how much she looks like you. I mean, I know the science and all, but I guess I just never realized how much people pass on to their kids."

Nick had been smiling softly as Sara spoke. People told him that all the time, but he never got tired of it. He hadn't known he had so much love inside him until he'd met Chelsea. Looking down at his baby girl, he could see his own eyes looking back at him, his mouth, his ears. Chelsea was a mini female version of him, alright, and he couldn't wait to see what her personality would be as she got older. She was a good baby, and only cried when she needed something. Nick knew he needed to savor this time with her when she was pint-sized, because he'd blink and she'd be all grown up.

"Thanks." Nick smiled proudly at his offspring. "I think she inherited my appetite too." He joked. Chelsea squirmed a bit in his arms, stretching her arms out as she accepted the nourishment her father was offering. Her big eyes seemed to twinkle at him.

He'd only been seeing Sara, and privately at that, for a couple of months but he was already pretty sure that he was more in love with her than he had ever been with Michelle. He'd had feelings for Sara for so many years before her relationship with Grissom had been exposed, that even then he felt sure that he'd never get over them. When he saw the way she interacted with his daughter, he couldn't be more grateful that he'd somehow convinced her that she belonged with him over Grissom. They were their own little family though, when she'd come over and spend a few 'daddy days' with them a week. Sometimes they would go out places, if the weather was gentle enough that they didn't risk Chelsea getting a cold.

When he'd first heard that he was going to be a father, he'd been more than a little scared. Now, however, he couldn't imagine anything making him more happy. Nick's favorite times with Chelsea were either the nights he got to spend home alone with his daughter, just watching her grow and learn or the rare times that he got to spend time with her and the rest of the team, on their own time. He loved how naturally Warrick, Catherine, Greg, Sara, and even Grissom seemed to take to his baby girl. It was like she was a part of each of them, a little niece that each of them could revel in and spoil.

Sara had leaned forward on her elbows, getting a closer look at the adorable child. It didn't matter how many times she'd seen Chelsea, Sara just couldn't get enough of Nick's kid. Was it selfish to want to spend so much time with Nick and his daughter?

Little Chelsea had quietly been suckling away at her bottle for a few good minutes, when Nick saw that her tiny lips had stopped nursing, and her eyes were already drooping. "She's a good eater." Sara commented, reaching out to gently stroke the child's head with a few of her fingers.

"She sure is." Nick agreed as he handed Sara the near empty bottle so he could reposition her for a burping. He had managed to grab a spitrag from her baby bag while preparing the bottle, and slung it over his shoulder. Sara smirked and had to chuckle at the sight of tough Nick Stokes with a spit rag laying on his shoulders. There was something very endearing and desirable about that, and she didn't know why.

"And there's nothing like a good nap after a big lunch is there, munchkin?" He asked his daughter, as if he expected her to respond. Moments later, the infant burped quite impressively, causing both adults to smile.

"Wow, she can really show you up in the burping department." Sara joked, and got a jokingly stern glare from her boyfriend.

Sara slid off of her chair and gently down next to Nick wrapping her arms around him in a gesture that would appear almost too intimate for work if Nick hadn't been holding a child. The infant, however, proved to be a useful excuse in almost any situation where they were caught in an almost compromising pose.

As Sara gently wrapped the baby blanket that Nick held his daughter in a little tighter around her body the child was mere moments from falling into a pretty deep sleep. Sara began to sing again, very lowly, when both her song and the child's sleep were interrupted by the entrance of two other people into the room.

Warrick and Grissom entered and though the younger of the two had the good sense not to speak with a nearly sleeping infant in the room, Grissom did not. "Nick I saw evidence just sitting in the layout room, I know you've got Chelsea tonight, but we're all working cases. You can't just occupy the room like that when you're not using it."

Nick was in mid stand when the child in his arms let out a shrill cry, apparently she didn't like it when Grissom reprimanded her father. Though he had already adapted to playing both the roles of CSI and father, from time to time he would just get lost in his confusion as to what to do next. Thankfully, he had Warrick and Sara in the room to assist him. It was Warrick, this time, that did. Bing closer to Nick now that he was standing, Warrick reached out and took the child from him. Gently leaning her up on his chest so that she could rest her head on his shoulder, he cuddled her gently and slipped out of the room so that the others could talk more openly.

All the CSI's had a good sense of humor, so Warrick decided to take the little mishap in stride. As he gently bobbed the baby up and down to calm her down, Warrick shook his head in mock disgust at his supervisor. "What a jerk, huh? Waking this poor little girl from her nap."

Chelsea perfectly timed the movement of her head, looking straight at Grissom with her red, tear-stained face. She looked thoroughly unhappy having come so close to a good rest, only to be snapped back to the land of the living by this weird guy.

Grissom smiled apologetically and twisted his lips to the side in amusement. It was impossible to him to be a real asshole to Nick about bringing his kid to work. This was the first time it had happened, and was pretty sure this wouldn't become a regular occurrence. Still, however, Nick needed to make sure he got his regularly work done accurately and on time.

"Sorry, Gris." Nick apologized. "I just needed to feed her and put her down, then I'll be back in the evidence room."

Grissom nodded and reached into his lab jacket pocket, retrieving a tiny plush toy that Chelsea had apparently dropped earlier. Chelsea switched from crying to whimpering, and reached out for her friend. "I found this in the evidence room." Grissom handed the toy to the little girl.

Nick stepped forward to take the child back from Warrick but his friend just smiled at him and waved him off. "Let me and Chels hang out for a while, I'm just waiting to hear back from trace. You go get what you have to done so you can get this little angel home."

"Thanks man," Nick said with a smile at his friend. He made sure that Warrick knew where the diaper bag was, and asked him for the thousandth time if he could change a diaper when the child inevitably woke up and needed to be cleansed. Nick knew that Warrick was surprisingly amazing with the small child though, and rarely worried when leaving her in his care.

Lindsey was well on her way to four and a half when Warrick had met her for the first time. Catherine had called and asked for his help with a flat tire about two weeks after he'd started working there. It was surreal to him to think that the teen he knew gave his good friend a run for her money on a regular basis was ever that small, it felt like a lifetime before. Though he knew that Nick couldn't wait until Chelsea was a bit older, and more independent, he also knew that his friend would want to keep her just the way she was forever. "Hey kid, you gotta promise me not to grow up to fast on your old man. You gotta stay little and cute like this for a while, okay? Say thirty years?"

Chelsea cooed and looked over at her father, as if asking him to explain what this crazy man was talking about. Nick smiled, and everyone in the room could see how he beamed in the presence of his child. He stepped forward and placed a tender kiss to her temple, and rubbed his fingers over her tiny back one more time.

"You be a good girl for Uncle Warrick," Nick instructed her, giving her a wink. She finally gave him a smile before he left the room to get back to work. Sara and Grissom soon followed suit, getting back to their own business around the lab. All of them wanted to stay and play, or even just watch, Chelsea for a little longer, but the work was already piling up.

Nick's thoughts weren't far from his daughter as he tried to concentrate on his work, but he was worried about her settling down for a nap in a strange place. Her carrier wasn't exactly the most comfortable place, and while Warrick was a good babysitter, she was already becoming a daddy's girl. Nick raced through his work as quickly as he could so he could get back to his baby girl. Grissom had struck a deal with him that if he finished processing the evidence from his current case, he could take off.

When he was finally done, Nick rushed back to the break room, finding Warrick lounging on the couch, with baby Chelsea asleep on his chest. Of course Nick wouldn't know, but he was sure that sleeping on Warrick was more comfortable than napping in her carrier. "Does my daughter have her first boyfriend?"


End file.
